News

Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch will open its Spring 2022 season with a stunning revival from Director Douglas Rintoul of Arthur Miller’s moving and powerful landmark drama All My Sons 10 February – 5 March, before playing at the New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich 8 – 12 March. Cast is led by David Hounslow, who is best known for his roles in Coronation Street and Doctors, as Joe and Eve Matheson, who is best known for her roles as Zoe Angell in the BBC sitcom May to December and Becky Sharp in the BBC adaptation of Vanity Fair, as Kate. They will be joined by David Bonnick Jr (Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, Addicted to Love, Channel 5) Oliver Hembrough (Around the World in 80 Days, BBC One), Nathan Ives-Moiba (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Octagon Theatre), Natasha Lewis (The Boy in the Dress, Royal Shakespeare Company), Tilly-Mae Millbrook (A Christmas Carol, The Watermill), Graeme Rooney (The Play That Goes Wrong, Duchess Theatre, UK Tour), and Kibong Tanji (The Sun, The Moon and The Stars, Theatre Royal, Stratford East). It’s 1947 and successful ‎businessman Joe Keller and his wife Kate are living the American dream in their idyllic suburban neighbourhood. Summer wedding plans are afoot for their son and his fiancée. Shadows of the war are slowly fading. But nothing‎ lasts forever. And a familiar visitor arrives to unbury secrets from the past, which will tear their lives apart… This compelling masterpiece, based on a true story, established Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman, The Crucible) as one of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century. A classic that’s been performed in the West End an‎d on Broadway by a galaxy of stars including Annette Bening, Jenna Coleman, Bill Pullman, David Suchet and Julie Walters All My Sons will be directed by Douglas Rintoul (Macbeth, Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch), designed by Amy Jane Cook  (Jelly Fish, The National Theatre), with lighting design by Stephen Pemble (Neville's Island, Queen's Theatre Hornchurch), sound design by Helen Atkinson (Grief is the Thing with Feathers, The Barbican, St Ann’s Warehouse, US), accent coaching by Joel Trill (A Taste of Honey, Trafalgar Studios), and intimacy and fight direction by Haruka Kuroda (The Last Temptation of Boris Johnson, Park Theatre). ★★★★★ 'Douglas Rintoul's production of this classic play grips like a vice'  Reviews Gate on The Crucible ★★★★★ 'Inspired direction, artful effects and compelling acting '  The Spy in the Stalls on Macbeth Director Douglas Rintoul says: “We are delighted to kick off the year as we mean to go on, bringing world-class drama to the stage at Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch “This will be the first production of Miller's masterpiece at the Theatre since 1959. It holds a particular significance as we move into 2022. Miller gives us a beautiful family drama full of ordinary people that we recognise and fall in love with. He grabs our hearts and then unashamedly forces us to experience the cost of their individualism, and its impact on their morality, interpersonal relationships and more importantly their wider world.  It hits us in the guts. Against our contemporary context of division, post-truth, climate change and the pandemic, this play speaks to us more than ever, asking us to look at the values and beliefs we hold about our own lives and the world around us” Eve Matheson says: “How lovely to be making my first appearance at the Queen’s Theatre. Miller’s description of Kate, in All My Sons, as ‘.., a woman with an overwhelming capacity for love’, is a hook in itself. Then to learn how events have, and do, affect her is a compelling and fascinating prospect to play. I am delighted and excited to be making her my own” David Hounslow says: "The Queens Theatre Hornchurch is a theatre rooted in and serving it’s community with a strong and growing reputation for thrilling work.  The play, All My Sons is one of the greatest plays of the twentieth Century by one of the greatest writers. Not a weak character in the piece, Joe, at the heart, a flawed man with a massive capacity for self-delusion and compromised integrity, the American dream personified with all its hope and boundless optimism crippled by pragmatism, compromise and deception. A clay footed idol destined for a fall. Who wouldn’t want to play this character a man for whom his family is his rock and ultimately his ruin? With such a fantastic group of actors to share the journey it is an actor’s dream job. And you get to shout and wave your arms about a bit!" To book your tickets and for more information about the Theatre visit queens-theatre.co.uk